The MIT CSAIL team calls thembanana fingers. They are bright yellow and oblong, but they serve a function. The glove is soft. If you will, it uses air power to serve as an assistive Wearable.
The gloves can help you get a grip if you have an issue with muscle control. The project is extra interesting because of the use of conductive yarn, which gives the gloves a built-in sense of touch.
A new paper describes the system that created the glove. It uses a machine knitting system.
The textile piece is made by the knitting machine.
Banana fingers are one of the prototypes created by the lab. The list includes a soft robotic hand and a quadrupedal robot. CSAIL envisions more complex systems, including things like exoskeletons. The soft robotic device could be used to help move other body parts.
The image is from MIT CSAIL.
Digital machine knitting is a very common manufacturing method used in the textile industry.
A focus on work and mobility has made eoskeletons an increasingly popular category of robotics. While a majority of them use harder material, many have begun focusing on softer versions made from textiles that trade overall strength for a design that works better with the human form.
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